This quote worries me - "As in the previous films, Nolan and his co-writer, his brother Jonathan, draw on real-world issues to spice up the fantasy, and with dubious results: with its rampaging Occupy Gotham anarchists, philanthropic billionaires and decent cops who ignore due process, this is so staunchly right-wing it’ll thrill all those Fox News anchors outraged by ‘The Muppets’."

The fact that Batman found and caught The Joker by spying on all of Gotham was trumpeted by right wingers as justification for Bushco.'s warrantless wiretapping. From what Time Out states it seems that the distinctly upper class Nolan Brothers have turned The Dark Knight Rises into some sort of Ayn Randian fantasy as the question doesn't seem to be soo much "Who is Batman" as it is "Who is John Galt" and the answer in both cases is Bruce Wayne; multi-billionaire trust fund baby, who's family built a railroad within Gotham, who spends his nights beating up people from lower-economic backgrounds and when he walks away the unwashed masses of rabble, led by Bane, rise up to take the wealth away from the 1% at which point Batman must return.

It seems like you can't have a post release thread till the movie has been released.

No, that's not the part I have a problem with. The film's been seen by quite a few people already, and most big films like this get a post-release thread during he week before the film is opened.

It just seems wrong to have the thread started by someone who joined the forums just to post this review (I'm not being a purist - I just find it suspect), and then immediately bring up the damned "Batman is a right-winger" thesis again. Batman doesn't go around "beating up people from lower-economic backgrounds" or the "unwashed rabble". It couldn't have been made more explicitly clear in Batman Begins that Batman goes after the mob and supervillains specifically. Never once does he go after a petty thief or crook. In fact, the comics were designed the same way, so as not to look like billionaire Bruce Wayne was going around kicking the shit out of poor people.

Dude even forsakes his wealth and company to go spend time traveling the world to experience life first-hand as a thief and criminal to better understand them before coming back to Gotham. And he refuses to conform to Ra's Al Ghul's belief that criminals of any economic standing should be dealt with harshly.

And the cellphone thing again. Batman knew the cellphone thing was crossing the line, which is why he left the decision of what to do with it to Lucius, after it served its purpose and he was able to stop The Joker. The Dark Knight was not a thesis on why the Patriot Act is justifiable, and the debate is tired.

A[quote name="D.T." url="/community/t/144220/the-dark-knight-rises-post-release-thread#post_3357622"]
No, that's not the part I have a problem with. The film's been seen by quite a few people already, and most big films like this get a post-release thread during he week before the film is opened.

It just seems wrong to have the thread started by someone who joined the forums just to post this review (I'm not being a purist - I just find it suspect), and then immediately bring up the damned "Batman is a right-winger" thesis again. Batman doesn't go around "beating up people from lower-economic backgrounds" or the "unwashed rabble". It couldn't have been made more explicitly clear in Batman Begins that Batman goes after the mob and supervillains specifically. Never once does he go after a petty thief or crook. In fact, the comics were designed the same way, so as not to look like billionaire Bruce Wayne was going around kicking the shit out of poor people.

Dude even forsakes his wealth and company to go spend time traveling the world to experience life first-hand as a thief and criminal to better understand them before coming back to Gotham. And he refuses to conform to Ra's Al Ghul's belief that criminals of any economic standing should be dealt with harshly.

And the cellphone thing again. Batman knew the cellphone thing was crossing the line, which is why he left the decision of what to do with it to Lucius, after it served its purpose and he was able to stop The Joker. The Dark Knight was not a thesis on why the Patriot Act is justifiable, and the debate is tired.
[/quote]

The right wing reading isn't something I fully buy into (for the reasons you mentioned), and it doesn't effect my enjoyment of Batman, but I think it's certainly justifiable given the text. Batman even performed an extra legal rendition last time out, if you'll recall.

If Carebear sticks around and is an active member of the discussion, then I think I'd be cool with him starting this thread (though I'm new myself so I guess my opinion might not count for much). If this is an anti Batman drive by, then yeah I can see where you are coming from.

Bruce Waynes goal has never been about "saving Gotham". It's really been about making Gotham safe for people like his parents. Sure, in TDKR it looks like Law and Order has been restored but what about the socio/economic conditions that created the man who killed Mr. and Mrs. Wayne in a failed robbery? We know the League of Shadows attacked Gotham economically, according to Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins, but in TDK we never learn if Batman has had any effect beyond cleaning up the streets. His efforts certainly didn't do anything to get rid of the corruption within the police force which led to Harvey Dent's downfall. If not for The Joker getting rid of what appeared to be the heads of the three major crime organizations, things would have just went along as they did. Batman more-or-less created The Joker and the cities response to him seems to have been the militarization of it's law enforcement. So rather than restoring order all he's really done is help turn Gotham into a police state. So the crime hidden Hell is now controlled by fascist authoritarians. Where's the middle ground?!

The reviews compiled at Rotten Tomatoes are uniformly good. The things that stand out are (1) the quality between Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and this film is remarkably consistent and speaks volumes about the unifying influence Nolan and his team have achieved (2) the politics are still going to divide people (3) there's still a bit of clunkiness buried in the narrative, something that was a reasonable criticism of the previous films.

It sounds like, even more than the last instalment, Nolan has thrown the kitchen sink at this. The remarkable thing, based on these early reviews, is that it appears to have worked.

Reading some of the comments below the reviews, though, Holy Christ there are some manic people out there. I never really engaged much with the rabid reactions to The Dark Knight, on either side, but there's no doubt they're coming out of the woodwork again for this one.

He said he liked TDK, too, but nearly all of his energy was (and remains) spent on talking about what he doesn't like about it. Even his original review skewed negative, especially compared to his grade/score.

Look, I really enjoy his reviews, and think he has a lot to offer the film community. In this specific area, though, he has some incredibly strong biases and isn't one to back down or easily reconsider. I'm not in the least bit shocked that he likes AVENGERS more. There was never really a chance of it being otherwise.

First rotten review on RT. The mob scene in the comments has already begun, with the occasional lonely voice of reason along the lines of "Dudes, you haven't even seen the movie yet. Let the man have his own opinion." Yep, it's gonna be 2008 all over again (self-link, click or ignore at your discretion).

...the dark knight duly rises for the bruising final stanza in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, a satisfying saga of revolution and redemption that ends the tale on a note of thunder. If viewers were wanting a corrective to the jumpsuit antics of The Avengers, or the noodling high-school angst of The Amazing Spider-Man, then rest assured that Batman delivers in spades. Here is a film of granite, monolithic intensity; a superhero romp so serious that it borders on the comical, like a children's fancy-dress party scripted by Victor Hugo and scored by Wagner.

First rotten review on RT. The mob scene in the comments has already begun, with the occasional lonely voice of reason along the lines of "Dudes, you haven't even seen the movie yet. Let the man have his own opinion." Yep, it's gonna be 2008 all over again (self-link, click or ignore at your discretion).

That's just what happens when a critic dares have a differing opinion on a movie that most people have already made up their minds on: It happened to Toy Story 3, TDK, The Avengers, and it will happen to TDKR.

We'll probably have to wait a couple weeks before any intelligent argument on the positive and negatives of the film can be made.

If this thread and others are any indication of things to come (how many pages does this have already? How many views? When was it started???) then I get the feeling the internet is going to literally explode after this movie comes out. It's gonna get ugly. I'm gonna go bury my head in the sand.

If this thread and others are any indication of things to come (how many pages does this have already? How many views? When was it started???) then I get the feeling the internet is going to literally explode after this movie comes out. It's gonna get ugly. I'm gonna go bury my head in the sand.

AWe need the Internet version of the "sea rising" of Tale of Two Cities. I say this because of the cool imagery and well it's been in my head since that article that DKR was inspired by Tale of Two Cities.

Guys, this sort of goes without saying, but be very, very careful about which reviews you read. I started reading the TIME review, figuring it would be safe, and it leaves very little to the imagination. Worse: the closing lines of the review seem to all but spoil the ending, which I could not believe. After the first paragraph, I only skimmed, and went to the last parts of the review, figuring it would be about the abstract elements....and BAM.

Fucking douchebag move. Pardon me for sounding like a fanboy, but it was just highly uncool.